Page 92 of The Untamed Duke
The order was harsh. A growl. A muttered plea.
“Nicholas—”
“Don’t let go.”
She did what he said. Her fingers gripped the edge of the table-like surface, positioned by his rough hands so she was bent over with just her forearms touching the hard stone. A moment later, his fingers parted her folds, ensuring she was ready for him. Then his cock thrust into the honey heat of her body with unerring skill, his fingers moving up, gripping her buttocks.
The quickness of his possession, the exquisite slide of his rigid flesh into her aching center stole her breath. It pushed her forward until the rock, slick as glass, flattened her belly and her fingertips gripped the opposite edge of its surface. And there Nicholas held, for a long moment, until she pushed back against him with a low moan and he slid out and into her again. Leisurely. Patiently. Until he couldn’t seem to help himself.
Grace gasped at the intense lust surging like molten fire through her veins. Nicholas was both violent and gentle. Taking and giving pleasure. There was nothing teasing or coy about this possession. On the contrary, it became quick and hard and wild, and that made it all the more exhilarating.
When she tightened about him, when the fury became almost overwhelming and she frantically bucked beneath the onslaught, Nicholas understood. Surging deeper, widening his stance, he easily tilted her hips upward, helping her roll them until he was buried inside her as far as he could go. Voracious and greedy, he did not stop until Grace trembled around him, the shock waves of her impending climax rippling and shimmering over him. He hit a spot deep inside her, so sweet and tender, she could barely breathe.
“Say my name, Grace,” Nicholas demanded, in a voice full of darkness. There was a lost, haunted quality flitting through its undercurrents that broke her heart. “Tell me you love me…”
“I love you,” Grace whispered.
Nicholas bent over her, licking the skin between her shoulder blades. When her hand slipped on the rock, he nipped her sharply on the sensitive spot where the curve of her shoulder met the line of her neck. She quickly regained her hold, the bitemark stinging, her insides on fire and melting all at once. Another helpless, greedy moan escaped her, and after a moment of hesitation, Nicholas teeth marked her a second time. Quick, striking. Just enough to send her tumbling over a black edge of desire.
“Again,” Nicholas hissed, pulling her slightly away from the rock.
One hand snaked over the flat plane of her belly, dipping low between her thighs and finding the button of nerves that made her whimper. His other hand fisted tight in the mass of wet hair streaming down her back. Controlled in such a manner, Grace was anchored in place, her back arching in ecstasy, her hands still gripping the rock’s edge.
“Say it again,” he repeated, giving her hair a sharp tug.
She gasped in shocked delight. “I love you, Nicholas. I love you… I love you....” Then she couldn’t speak as he drove into her with renewed frenzy. She was exploding into a million stars, and he was the spark igniting her. The wildfire spreading through her. The tornado overtaking her and obliterating everything except her need for him. Her love for him. He was the storm and she...I am but a raindrop...a rain cloud...a lightning bolt…
The thoughts scrambled in her mind as Grace flew apart and Nicholas put her back together with his crushing grip, his bruising fingers, his needy embrace. His sweet kiss.
“Oh, god. Grace...Grace...I... love...fuck...I need you. You’re mine. Mine...mine...” The words sounded ripped from his tortured soul. A soul as brutal as he was, but tender and generous too, for all that he tried hiding it from the world.
When Nicholas peaked with her, sucked into a paradise painted in dark, intricate swirls of desire, lust and love, a secret, underground world of turquoise water and diamond lights where only the two of them existed, Grace sobbed aloud. She held the edge of the rock as if it were his heart.
She trusted.
She loved.
And she never let go.
* * *
Nicholas slowly easedout of Grace’s body, holding her up as she half slumped atop the slick surface of the rock. Where he held her, his large hands tight on the sleek curve of her waist, he felt her pulse beating beneath the skin, the double time thumps of her erratic heartbeat.One-two, three-four, five-six…
“Sweet hell, I did not mean to be so rough.” He was rueful but not sorry. He would never be sorry for what they did together while making love.
“I did not mind.”
Her voice was a husky murmur he strained to hear.
“I was too rough…” he muttered again, convincing himself. She was spineless in his hands. As if he’d pounded all the life from her body.
Damn it. She wasn’t used to all this sexual activity, and beast that he was, he’d taken her in a manner reserved for mistresses of long-standing. His jaw clenched. “Did I hurt you?”Fool. Of course, you probably hurt her. You’ve treated her in the coarsest, most demeaning of ways…
“I loved it,” Grace said in a tiny voice. “It was perfect.”
Nicholas spun her about so her face was visible, the lights reflecting as flickering flames in her golden eyes. His stare was disbelieving. “You loved it.” Repeating her words, he realized he could count her heartbeats by the pulse in her neck. Hers was returning to normal, while he was positive his had accelerated.
Grace’s eyes were glassy. She was still coming down from her orgasm, her mannerisms dreamy, floaty. “I never realized there were so many places we could make love. I want to try them all with you.”
